Starbucks has changed its logo to feature a close up on the Siren, alone, without any lettering. She's a creature who doesn't need to explain herself!

It's really interesting that Starbucks, the largest coffeehouse company in the world, uses a feminine icon. Of course, she has been severely desexualized since the company's inception.

The original Siren had (gasp) actual breasts, complete with nipples. Obviously the company had to ditch her to go mainstream.

But the symbol of the siren has always been sexually charged; holding her tails apart in a suggestive way — what she's offering is not a venti latte.

According to The Woman's Dictionary Of Symbols And Sacred Objects (one of my favorite books, ever) the siren had a connection to the ancient symbol of the Sheila-na-gig, a figure who posed with her legs spread, showing off her "vesica piscis" — her vaginal area, which, in Latin, means "vessel of the fish." That shape, representing the yoni or vulva, is ubiquitous in goddess-worshipping cultures, and it's not a coincidence that a vulva shape appears to surround Our Lady of Guadalupe.

Anyway, it's just kind of exciting that while McDonald's has the golden arches and Coke is it, a (mainstreamed) symbol of female sexual power will be representing the $10.7 billion dollar company of Starbucks in over 16,858 stores in 50 countries. And she's so powerful, she'll do it without words.